My native language is Dutch.
In The Netherlands, English is taught as a second language, starting at the age of 12, and up to a few years ago, it was a mandatory final exam subject in high school. As a result, my proficiency in Dutch and English is about the same.
I've also had German and French classes, but I dropped French as soon as possible. I don't like that language. I did take German lessons longer, but didn't do final exam in it. Because I live near the border, I get a chance to speak German now and again. My proficiency in German is lower as that in Dutch and English, but I'm easily able to understand and read the language. I can speak and write it at a passable level, but I do make some grammar and spelling mistakes as I don't use this language as often as Dutch or English.
With regard to reading, I read almost exclusively in English, as many books are not translated to Dutch, are translated only a long time after an English release, and sometimes, if the book is part of a series, the publisher just drops the series if they don't sell enough books.
If the original work is in Dutch, English, or German then I read it in the original language. If I read a book originally written in Russian or another language I don't know, I'd normally read the English translation.
Even while I cannot state that I am proficient in those languages, I understand the general idea of what is written when I try to read French, Italian, Portugese, Spanish, or Danish. I think that, should I decide to learn one of these languages, that it would not be difficult for me.
With regard to Japanese, I can just say: the language is quite easy in about all respects, but I get turned off on reading and writing. Hiragana, Katakana (I know those, but I'm apt to forget characters because of disuse), Kanji, and Romaji, all used together is just torturous, and when I try I want to kill myself. That's why I'm stuck at understanding this language. Just stick to Hiragana already
